Building Your Own Indoor Herb Garden

There are many ways to pot herbs indoors so you can add fresh thyme, rosemary, parsley, and others to your meals. Cooking with herbs provides a nutritious way to add some extra flavor to your food so you won’t have to reach for the salt shaker. You can read more about the health risks associated with high sodium diets and how you can reduce your salt intake here.

This project is also a great opportunity to recycle some of your store-bought food and drink containers and reuse them as planters. It’s very easy and inexpensive, but it looks great!

Hereis one simple example of how to plant your herbs in plastic bottles:

What you need:

Marker
1-liter plastic bottles with caps
Utility knife
Scissors
Potting soil
Herbs – you can buy these at your local farmer’s market and many grocery stores. Look up the farmers market nearest to you here, and read about the easiest herbs to growand what foods they go best with.

Activity:

Step 1: For each bottle, mark a line 5 inches from the bottle’s base. Have the adult use the utility knife to puncture the bottle at the mark, then use scissors to cut all the way around the bottle at the mark. Remove the label, using vegetable oil to get rid of any extra adhesive.

Step 2: With the cap in place, take the cut top half of the bottle and place it cap side first into the bottom half.

Step 3: Fill it halfway with soil. Take an herb and press it gently into the planter, adding more soil until secure.

Step 4: Lift out the soil-filled top portion of the bottle and remove the cap. Add about an inch of water to the planter’s base, enough to cover the lip of the upside down bottle top when you replace it.

Step 5: Give the herb some more water, then place it in a sunny spot.

Step 6: Follow the care instructions that came with the particular herb.